The FA Girls’ Football Festival continues its travels this week with a stop at Cheshire FA Football Centre.
More than 300 girls from 32 schools are expected to attend today’s festival (Thursday, July 14) at Moss Farm Leisure Complex, Northwich , which combines music, lifestyle and football for a great day out.
The festivals are a free joint initiative by The FA and Continental Tyres, providing girls aged five to 16 with an exciting, interactive football experience for both those new to the game and regular players.
Supported by the Cheshire FA, the festival invites girls from schools across the county to take part.
Female pupils are attending from areas including Chester , Frodsham , Northwich and Crewe.
Participants will enjoy an action-packed day including taking on Conti interactive challenges consisting of quick feet, batak boards and a speed cage.
They will also get to take part in five-a-side games, a refereeing workshop and even have the chance to have their hair braided and faces painted to give the day a little more sparkle.
The young athletes will have the opportunity to meet some of the local stars of the FA Women’s Super League (FAWSL) in Kirstie Levell and Lauren Davies from Everton Ladies FC.
Both players will be joining in with the day’s festivities, giving the girls advice and tips they have picked up along the way as well as taking part in a question and answer session.
It’s not just the FAWSL stars who will be showing off their tricks as Charlotte Lade, world renowned football freestylist, will be on hand to offer the girls all of her knowledge and expertise.
The festivals aim to offer a fun and unique footballing experience to the girls while complementing the work the FA is doing with its ‘We Can Play’ campaign which focuses on eradicating existing stereotypes, while maintaining and increasing participation across the girls’ game.
Kelly Simmons, FA director of football participation and development, said: “Our festivals, run in partnership with Continental Tyres, have been a huge success since they launched. One of our big areas of focus is getting more girls to play football and these festivals encourage and provide the opportunity for our young players to do so.”
Guy Frobisher, Continental Tyres UK marketing director, emphasises the importance of the continued growth and development in grass roots football, especially across the girls' and women’s game saying: “The FA Girls Football Festivals with Continental Tyres continues to grow year-on-year, giving tens of thousands of young girls from around the country the chance to get involved with the sport.
“At Continental Tyres we are extremely proud that 2016 is our 6th year partnering with the FA and undoubtedly is set to be the biggest and best so far. Who knows, perhaps in a few years’ time we may see a number of our festival attendees playing for their country.”
